


The Rhythm of Love

by crownhearted



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Friendship, Love Polygon, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-02-02
Updated: 2012-02-02
Packaged: 2017-10-30 12:50:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,062
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/331911
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crownhearted/pseuds/crownhearted
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What matters today is not what they are thinking, saying or hearing, but what they are feeling.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Rhythm of Love

Dirk wonders if his hand is brushing too close to Jake’s. He wonders if they look too picture-esque to be real right now, he wonders if someone somewhere is taking a picture of their little star-circle-shape from an aerial view and putting it on a greeting card with some classic quote about friendship. He listens to what is being said and quips here and there, but he is the most quiet of their group, and he wonders if his friends think him antisocial, or if that’s even a thing that needs to be a thing, or if that’s a thing that’s correct- and his train of thought abruptly stops there. It dissolves and becomes a puddle of melted sugar when Jane hooks her fingertips loosely around his left set, and he shuts his eyes to take a deep breath of the fresh island-sea air. He is reminded of where they are and who brought them here- Jake, of course, always Jake, always Jake with his goddamn laugh and that great smile, fuck that smile, and that hospitable twinge to his voice that’s too loud and too soft and never the right volume because he’s always been alone on this island. Dirk wonders if he feels as alone as he really is, wonders if he feels as alone as Dirk does on late cold nights surrounded by nothing but metal and wire, but he finds that the shifting of Jake’s leg next to his jolts him out of his worry and lets him drift back to deep breaths of air he won’t be able to find at home.

Meanwhile, Jake thinks about how safe they are in the moment, he listens hard even through his own laughter at the current conversation. He keeps his ears sharp to the way leaves and grass rustle around them, he makes sure to keep his eyes open and wide, and his legs parted so that he can easier stand if it comes to that. He shifts his left leg to feel the weight of his pistol, and makes sure it’s properly loaded by going over the sequence of loading a gun in his head, knowing he did that before they journeyed out. And now, laying between Jane and Dirk, he is sure that his heart is going to burst, because he’s never had this easy a time in the jungle he calls home, he has never gone unnoticed for long, and he knows it is only a matter of When until they get caught and it is up to him to protect his friends, his best friends, and he wonders then if that’s a gesture that would be too far extended, he wonders if Jane would be offended to know that he’s thinking of being a gentleman and protecting her- would she want to defend herself? It wasn’t that he didn’t give her credit for being a strapping young woman, but Roxy, what about Roxy, Jane would defend Roxy first, wouldn’t she? The girl was too far away from sobriety to even speak properly, of course she couldn’t do much to defend herself- right? Wasn’t that how this worked? Jake had always thought it was just plain Rules of Defense that you had to be completely alert and awake at all times in order to keep yourself alive- but Jane turns her head and laughs close to his ear, and any din is drowned out by the sound.

Roxy is watching the clouds and keeping her brain focused on what Jane is saying and how Jake is moving. She faintly feels like floating and falling at the same time, and wonders how that’s possible. She supposes it’s just a side-effect of everyone’s heads touching, hairs mingling and bodies shifting closer and closer as their conversation rolls on. Their hands are all somehow interwoven, and Roxy is aware of this as soon as Jane lifts her hand and Roxy’s goes cold. Jane is making motions to the sky, carving shapes out of clouds with her fingers, and Roxy looks to watch her, but her eyes wander. They trail down her wrist and arm, to her shoulder, and then her eyes, and now Roxy knows her head is twisted all the way around and it doesn’t matter. Jane is animated and happy and excited, Jane is speaking and breathing and nothing has been more beautiful, no eyes have been more blue and no voice has been more enamored. So Roxy spends forever watching Jane’s eyes until Jane sets her hand back down and Roxy looks back up at the sky, not because she’s tired of looking- that’s not even possible- but because she wants to concentrate on the feeling of Jane’s warm palm sliding back into her cool one, and their hands clasping like only the best of friends do, and then there is an ache in her chest that won’t settle down until Jane squeezes her hand, and then it’s okay, it’s all going to be okay.

And Jane realizes she has been the only one talking for some time now, so she frowns and lets silence reign. Jake and Roxy have been giggling at her words and Dirk has monotone-commented on her stupid cloud visions every now and again, but it occurs to her that she is the only one with anything to blabber about. For a moment it bothers her- and she feels like a bad friend, for taking over everything all at once like that, for running on and on and maybe not giving anyone a chance to speak- but when the silence stretches and she realizes that Jake is almost holding his breath across from her, when she feels Roxy tense up, when she notices Dirk’s heavy hand curl a little, she gets the message that nobody else has anything to say, and so she goes right on talking. However, it only lasts for a few minutes, and she relaxes the conversation into easy, non-awkward silence, to listen to birds tweeting and the whir of winged bugs overhead. She listens to the beat of life around her, the drumming noise consuming such a primitive area, and slides her eyes closed.

In the silence of the moment, hands tangled, heads touching, hearts connected, four best friends take time to feel the rhythm of love on an isolated island, and nobody is there to witness it.


End file.
